8/17/2002: First photograph

[Undertoad]

I was a little surprised that I had never seen this before. This is the first photograph ever made, by a Frenchman, Joesph Niepce. It was made in 1827.

He took a certain varnish which hardened when exposed to light, exposed it to the scene, then washed away the non-hardened varnish areas, producing a layer of "negative".

Supposedly there's a building there on the left, a tree behind it, a barn in the foreground. The light hit these things for 8 hours while the varnish hardened, so it's not a single point light source.